Endless Legend 2's answer to the common 4X problem of "goldfish" AI is a cunning system of badges, from Pleasant to Bully

The least involving part of any 4X strategy is very often diplomacy with AI civilizations. Even Endless Legend 2, a game with a faction of coral people who can make other people like them by infesting their territory with spores, does settle into a formula. You make friends with other leaders forever or you define them as enemies and obliterate them. Maybe you grease the wheels by offering some minor nation a palmful of glowy rocks in return for passage through their lands.

Developers Amplitude are trying to give Endless Legend 2's diplomacy more consistency and flavour, however, by giving the world itself a memory. As of the game's latest update, you'll find it harder to cuddle up to other factions after spending 20 turns incinerating their dominions. Even worse, you might be permanently branded a Bully.

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